-By Warner Todd Huston
Pat "the accidental governor" Quinn told a union crowd that Illinois GOP Gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady would somehow destroy the middle class by his anti-union stance. Quinn also made the essential claim that without unions there'd be no "middle class."
"We're not going to have a middle class if we allow a lot of anti-labor, anti-union operators to get in politics and tear to shreds fundamental things we all agree on," Quinn said. "He doesn't believe in the minimum wage. He wants to abolish it."
There is, of course, a glaring error in Quinn's wild-eyed union claim. As of 2009 union members accounted for only 12.4 percent of America's workforce. With this fact one wonders how the middle class could be eliminated by anti-union forces when union workers make up such a tiny percentage of the total U.S. workforce already?
Is Quinn trying to claim that the entire middle class is made up of only 12.4 percent of the U.S. workforce?
On the contrary, just by the numbers it would seem that if unions wholly disappeared all at once there wouldn't be that big a dent in the total middle class of the country. In fact, unions have been losing members steadily for quite a while now and there is still a thriving middle class. After all, nearly half of American households fit into the middle class. (incomes median $46,000 annually).
Is the economy bad right now? Sure it is. But one could effectively argue that some of this bad economy is because of unions and their production killing demands, not despite them.
On top of that, there is no evidence that Bill Brady ever said he wants to eliminate the minimum wage. So Quinn has tow for two in lies on this one, for sure.
Sadly, Quinn has drifted far from the man of the people he once was and is now a scaremonger, a demagogue, and a hypocrite.
